It’s not too late to conserve water

As most readers know, the City Council declared a Stage 1 Water
Supply Shortage earlier this year in response to three consecutive
years of California drought. I wanted to spend a few column inches
this week telling you how the community has performed.
As most readers know, the City Council declared a Stage 1 Water Supply Shortage earlier this year in response to three consecutive years of California drought. I wanted to spend a few column inches this week telling you how the community has performed.

Before providing you with the data, however, I think some words of explanation are necessary. You see, measuring the effectiveness of a water conservation program is difficult because the weather plays such a big role in water demand. The hotter and drier it is, the more water our landscapes will need and the more water we’ll use. Since up to 70 percent of our summertime usage goes to landscaping, the weather is a huge influence on water demand. With this in mind, we could see water use increase with an extra hot, dry summer – even if lots of people were conserving and using less than they ordinarily would have.

A second factor coming into play this year is the recession. Like other items we “consume” during normal times, we ultimately consume less water when money is tight. Perhaps you’ve noticed foreclosed homes that have had the water turned off or shuttered businesses that are no longer irrigating their landscape or using water to make their product. It is very difficult to quantify the impact the recession is playing on our water consumption.

Now that I’ve convinced you that “measuring” water conservation is a sketchy science, let me tell you what we’ve done to attempt to best determine program results.

First, to get a broad picture of what our historic usage was, we’ve averaged the monthly water production from 2004 to 2008 to develop a good estimate of what our community uses, on average, each month of the year.

Second, to account for community growth, we’ve divided this historic usage by our population from each year to develop monthly per capita usage.

Third, in order to account for differences in the weather, we’ve further adjusted the monthly per capita usage with data from a nearby weather station. We did not adjust the data any further to account for recessionary effects.

So, what did we find? Overall, we’ve found that the community is using substantially less water this year. In fact, if we compare water usage for the four months of June through September with the historical per capita, weather-adjusted usage, we find that water usage is down nearly 20 percent. While some of this reduction is undoubtedly due to the recession, there is no doubt that much of it is due to the conserving efforts of local residents and businesses.

So congratulations Morgan Hill. However, before you turn that faucet back on, let me remind you that we are still in a Stage 1 shortage and all of our restrictions and programs are still operational. There are three specific points I’d like to offer you.

1. The city is still matching the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Landscape Rebate Program. Under this program, residents can get a rebate for replacing their high-water use landscape with a water-efficient landscape. The first step in this program is to schedule a Water-Wise House Call with the district that will prequalify you for the rebate. To schedule a visit, call 1-800-548-1882 or go to http://cf.valleywater.org/Water/Water_conservation/In_the_home/House_call_request.cfm to fill out their on-line form. (sorry about that ugly URL, readers)

2. If you already have a water wise landscape or prefer to start on the inside, the city also matches the water district’s High-Efficiency Toilet Rebate program. Before you exclaim, “Oh no, I will not use one of those low-flow toilets,” let me tell you that technology has really advanced in recent years and only those toilets that have been proven to flush reliably and save water are eligible for the rebate. Call (877) 874-8479 for rebate pre-approval and to request a rebate application. Please note that you must be replacing a pre-1992 toilet to be eligible for the rebate and that the toilet rebate amount cannot exceed the price of the toilet itself.

3. While much of the community is complying with the current restrictions, there are still some folks out there who haven’t gotten the message. Please remember:

• No irrigating on Mondays and Thursdays

• No irrigating between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

• No washing down driveways and hard surfaces

• No excessive runoff from irrigation

Thanks to you all, we’re having success at beating this drought and preserving our supplies for the future.

Anthony Eulo is a Program Administrator for the city of Morgan Hill who waters his yard efficiently. He welcomes your questions, comments, and thoughts and can be reached at 778-6480 or en*****@************ca.gov .